Rules Are Made For Breaking
by DaMajikBanana
Summary: From work to home, Elsa's life is run by rules that cause her a great deal of stress. After meeting Anna, she realizes that some rules are meant to be broken.


"What the hell do people wear to a job interview at a thrift shop? I mean, a dress seems like too much, and I may come off as a pompous snob or something, but jeans and a hoodie don't seem like enough, and the interviewer might think I am homeless. Which I guess technically may be in my favor, since I need this job." I sighed, searching my wardrobe for the perfect outfit for my job interview. _I love my light blue dress, but it is a tad bit overkill. Wearing a hoodie seems like it would be more appropriate in the level of formal-ness, but would be offensive as if I was telepathically telling my future boss, "Fuck you, I give zero fucks about my appearance as well as this job."_ I debated between formal and casual for another five minutes before going with a pair of bright sky blue jeans, a black dress shirt and my black converse. _Best to go for the middle, I guess. Now that I chose an outfit I can move to the easier part._ I spent another 10 minutes messing with my hair and makeup so that I looked as nice and spiffy as possible. I braided my hair and put it into a french braid bun and I applied very minimal makeup. _I want to get a job, not a date. Though the latter would not necessarily be a bad thing._

"Look good, do good," I said as I checked myself out in the mirror, laughing at my stupid saying. I grabbed my keys, phone and wallet and headed out of my apartment and down the stairs, greeting a couple of my neighbors out of courtesy. I don't really talk to any of them, but it would be rude to just walk by without a simple good evening. Plus some people seem so happy when I tell them good morning, afternoon, evening, whatever time of day, and it just feels nice to make them smile. After I climbed down three flights of stairs, I made it out of the apartment building's main entrance, and I embarked on an adventure to the thrift shop that was only a couple streets down, weaving through other pedestrians quickly so I would not be late.

Five minutes later, I was in front of the store. A large sign on the building brandished its name with pride: "Wandering Oaken's Thrift." It was a medium sized thrift shop that was owned by some guy who went by Oaken. It was one of the few local businesses that was surprisingly successful. From what I heard, Oaken got a deal to have a shop in a couple other big cities. With a couple shops sprinkled across the country, he wasn't going to be at the Wandering Oaken in town as often, so a job opened up, which leads to me standing right here.

I walked into the shop and was greeted with a "Hoo-hoo, big summer blow-out! Everything here is up to half off. How may I help you?"

"Uh, I'm have an interview with the boss for a job here," I answered.

"Ah, you mus be Elsa, ya? Vell, I am de boss, if you did not know. Please head to my office, I vill join you shortly," he said with a huge grin. "Anna, come vork at de register vhile I am in de office," he said to a girl who was sweeping nearby. She dropped the broom to do an exaggerated salute to him and ran towards the register, only to trip on a box she did not see and fall on her face a of couple feet away from me. I giggled at her absurd actions and ran to help her up.

"Ah, sorry Mr. Oaken, I didn't mean..." she paused and looked at me, "Uh, sorry. Do you need help with buying something, I am so sorry if I just ignored you, but as you saw my boss just told me to take the register, I mean, you must be about to buy something but he is too busy to help you and I am so sorry,"

I smiled and shook my head. "No, no I am here for a job, and your boss was just going to interview me. Sorry for indirectly causing you to land on your face. Are you going to be okay?"

Her face lit up with a contagious smile. "Yeah, of course. Things are pretty quiet since only I and the boss work here. Another employee would be pretty awesome."

"Yeah, I agree. Well, I gotta head to that interview, or else you'll be stuck here all alone," I teased as I walked into Mr. Oaken's office. He was already sitting at his desk, holding a pad and pen. He gave me a smile and gestured for me to sit in the seat in front of him and I obliged. _Wow, this chair is really soft. I sank right into it, as if the chair was trying to eat me. If I don't get this job then I should get this chair._

"Okay, Elsa, firs off, do you have any sort of experience vith vorking in a customer service related job?"

"Well, I was a freelance graphic designer for a while, if that counts. I mean I worked with customers and made sure they were satisfied with my work."

"Ah, an artis, ya?"

"Eh, sort of. I'm no Michelangelo. I'm more into designing, like architecture; in fact, that's what I am in school for right now."

"Really? Vhy such an interes in building dings?"

"I dunno. I always have. When I was little I used to play with Legos and build anything from spaceships to castles. I still have one of my favorites in my room, I glued the pieces together so it'll stay. Here I have a photo." I pulled out my phone and searched my photo album for the picture. As I found it, I grinned and showed him my masterpiece, "It's like an ice castle, it took me forever to find only blue pieces, but it was worth it."

"Vow, dat is impressive." he said with a grin as he jotted something down. "Any special talents dat vould make you de bes for dis job?"

"I think I am pretty good at helping people calm down and chill out if they are ridiculously angry."

"Vhat about any veaknesses?"

"Uh, the only bad thing I got going for me is I crack under extreme stress. I am not talking about a customer yelling at me, that's not hard to handle at all. I mean like if the apocalypse happened, I would snap. But I doubt the apocalypse will happen while I have this job so we don't need to worry about that."

Oaken laughed. "So to me, it seems like you vould be qualified enough to vork here. But it is policy to go through the entire interview before making a decision," he said as he gave me a reassured look that told me I got the job. After another half hour and about ten more questions later, we finished.

"Here you go," he said as he handed me a name tag, a slip of paper, and a small booklet. "I assume you know vhat a name tag is. De slip of paper is jus a reminder dat you need to come in tomorrow at 8 so Anna can teach you how to do your job. Dat," he said, pointing to the booklet, "is all of de rules of de store, emergency protocols, and anything else you need to know. A little something I made so dings are less chaotic here."

"Thank you so much for the job. You will not regret it."

"I better not. Vell, go home, tomorrow starts your first day. Ve vill discuss vork hours and such den. Give de booklet a read-through tonight, it'll make your first day a bit easier." I nodded and left his office. As I began to leave the shop, Anna and I locked eyes and she walked up to me, and I subconsciously stopped to see what she wanted.

"Did you please the boss or am I doomed to be forever alone?" she interrogated as she narrowed her eyes on me, expecting an answer.

"I will give you three guesses."

"There's only two outcomes! Obviously I will be able to guess!"

"Hey, I don't know your abilities. Guess I'll get to learn a bit about them tomorrow."

She cocked her head at me confused until she realized I did, in fact, get the job. She then made some enthusiastic noise I never heard from a human being before and pounced onto me to hug me. I stood frozen and confused and decided to hug her back. _Weirdo._ She finally pulled away and looked me in the eye. Her eyes had a peculiar twinkle to them, as if she was an only child who was about to have a new sibling or something. It was cute.

"So, when is your first day of working?" she asked.

"Tomorrow. Pretty excited about that. It seems like it'll be fun here."

"I hope so, like I said, it was pretty boring by myself. Now that you're here, it's going to be awesome."

"Wait, so if this is basically a national enterprise or whatever, how come you're here all alone?"

"Well, since Mr. Oaken did not want to trust people he barely knew to run his new stores, he sent the employees from here to be the new managers and make sure the shops don't burn down and stuff. This was about a month and a half ago and it was pretty much just me and him running the shop in town until now. It wasn't hard for just the two of us to run it, it would have been easier with more people, and a lot more fun, too, but Mr. Oaken doesn't hire people all that often. But hey, you're hired, so that's awesome."

"Any particular reason you didn't become a manager?"

Anna blushed. "Well, I, uh... Hey, I realized I never actually caught your name." Anna facepalmed while changing the subject. "You probably know the name that comes with my face and all I know is your face."

"Wow, I guess you're right. Maybe we should keep it that way so if you have to talk about me, you have to describe my face." I stuck my tongue out at her. "I am curious how you would manage that."

"Oh, your Majesty, I know not of your name but only the beautiful face and blonde locks in which your nominal device is used to identify such perfection," Anna said with a sarcastic bow in my direction, which led to her losing her balance again and falling on her butt.

"Rather graceful, aren't you?" I teased. She glared at me before grabbing my ankle and pulling to cause me to fall on my butt as well. "Ow, why did you do that?"

"Maybe I was possessed by a demon. Maybe I am sadistic. Maybe a certain person will not tell me her name."

"It's Elsa, you crazy fool," I said, jokingly punching her arm for making me fall.

"Was that so hard?"

"If you are referring to the floor, then yeah."

"Whatever, Els. I'll see you tomorrow."

_Els? She barely knows me and she is already giving me nicknames. Though, I kinda like the ring to it._

"Yeah, see you later, uh," I paused. _Anna can't be shortened to some cute nickname. This is not fair._

"You forgot my name already? I'm offended," she joked.

"Well I was going to give you a nickname, but I suck at coming up with those. Well, I guess you are stuck with your actual name. See ya Anna."

I looked back to wave and saw her smile and wave back. I headed back to my apartment building and climbed up the stairs to my apartment. While opening my apartment door, I heard my neighbor, Quasimodo, whom everyone calls Quasi, with some other guy, who I never met. They both sounded inebriated, based off of the constant stuttering and slurred words, and were singing "Single Ladies" in falsetto. It was hard not to laugh hard enough that the entire apartment building could hear. I undressed from my casually formal attire and changed into a tank top and shorts. I grabbed a soda and a slice of leftover pizza and heated it up. _All that interviewing sure made me hungry._ I grabbed my food from the microwave and plopped onto the couch and opened the booklet to read some of the rules with my dinner.

* * *

**The Four Wandering Oaken Commandments**

_"1) Thou shalt dress appropriately. Nothing that could get you thrown into jail on your way to work. This includes, but is not limited to: Shorts short enough to expose one's gluteous maximus or other such things, shirts that expose enough cleavage if on was to bend down, a "nip slip" would occur, sagging of the pants to expose one's glutes, clothing that has lewd or obscene messages, and jean shorts."_

I began to laugh and accidentally choked on my pizza. After a coughing fit and the realization that I was still alive, I laughed some more at what I read. Oaken's got a sense of humor. I don't have to worry about this rule. I am pretty sure I dress in an appropriate manner.

* * *

_"2) Thou shalt be on time. If an employee is late to work more than 6 times in a 3 month period, punishment will ensue. Refer to Section 4 to see penalties and punishments for misbehavior."_

Okay, no big deal. I am usually never late so another easy rule for me. Maybe once a month I should arrive late on purpose holding a coffee from the coffee shop across the street from the apartments.

* * *

_"3) Thou shalt attempt to not exude any mannerisms that fit the following descriptions: racist, sexist, homophobic, anti-religion, terrorist, etc. In short, thou shalt not be a dick."_

Woah, not expecting that. I mean I like helping people so I doubt I'll be much of a dick so is all good. I shalt not be a dick. If I happen to be a dick, I shalt be a small dick. I laughed at my stupidity once more and continued reading.

* * *

_"4) Thou shalt not have a romantic relationship with another employee. If two or more employees are found to be in a relationship together, severe consequences will follow."_

I felt myself blush. _This rule would probably never be broken, right? I mean the only employees are me and Anna. We would never start dating. She probably has a boyfriend. Besides, we don't like each other like that._ I sighed. I worry too much about such little things. I listened to my neighbors for some comic relief, as they moved on to singing "Booty Wurk" and from the sound of it, Quasi must have decided he wanted to try his hand at twerking. I giggled and looked through the rest of my booklet. After an hour of reading through the entire book, I got up to stretch and throw away my garbage from dinner. I took my hair out of the braid and collapsed onto the couch to sleep.

"Dating employees. Such a weird rule." The blush returned. "It's not gonna happen, I don't like her like that, she is probably dating, so why worry about this stupid rule?" I sighed, and decided to allow Quasi and his friend's horrible singing comfort me into sleep.


End file.
